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Swamp of the Dead, Minnesota

Who remembers the forest that was filled with werewolves in the movie "Underworld"? Ya, well that is the one and only thing I could think about as I started my hike into the pitch black darkness last night.

Recently, all of my backpacking trips have been short overnighters into random places that I find near the cities using Google's topographic and satellite images. Sometimes the areas I find are wonderful and other times not-so-much.

I started my journey into what looked like a forest on google but ended up being a thick swamp filled with dead trees and creepiness. As many of you know I started hammocking so that I could tree climb and sleep in the canopy (http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=39585) and last night I wanted to take it easy and see how much I enjoyed sleeping near the ground like most of you guys do. However, after I bushwacked about 1/2 mile into the swamp I turned into a sissy little girl (I think I even screamed at one point when I thought something was stalking me). I ended up setting my hammock up about 15 feet in the air which was relatively low but high enough to make me feel safe from lycans. Temperatures got down to 15 degrees according to my thermometer but I slept warm. Here are some pictures that I snapped the next morning:

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And here is a picture of the crap that I bushwacked through in pure darkness last night. I honestly thought I was going to get eaten.

if it is off of larpenteur you probably have more real things to be afraid of than werewolves! well I guess depending on where on larpenteur.... the parts I know are very shady!

When I said "close to the cities" I meant within a 50 mile distance from my house . Haha. I go backpacking to get away from the cities! If I were to camp where I could hear police sirens and cars all night my backpacking adventures would be tainted for life.

Nice work on getting up in the tree. Is that a safety harness you made around your midsection?
I've tried hanging higher in trees as well, but I'm always a little freaked out that my hammock will fall.